So for the past few weeks, I’ve been experiencing a lot of flickering with video playback. The funny thing was it only happened with MPC (Media Player Classic) and not VLC media player. However, I know VLC uses it’s own codecs for decoding and would often times skip what’s registered.
Anyway, I decided to try debugging. I installed the latest release of ffdshow, but that didn’t help. It doesn’t flicker all the time, but usually flickers the most often in dark or mostly black scene. I also notice the flickering only happens with .avi files (particularly Xvid). When I was playing some .mkv (H.264 encoded) files, they played fine. That’s when I realized that when I play .avi files in MPC, the little ffdshow system tray icon no longer shows up.
In MPC, I opened the context menu –> Filters and looked for the video decoder. Apparently it was using something called: FunBox Video Codec Filter. I don’t recall ever installing a FunBox codec and started to think maybe I had accidentally installed some malware.
Anyway, I did a bit of research and found the file that’s associated to this codec: FunVideoCodecFilter.ax. I started a system-wide search for this file while I continue searching for clues to how I got it.
I then landed on this page: AVI playback issues – weren’t even there days ago. It appears that the FunBox codecs came with a recent update of Samsung PC Studio 3, which I did update a few weeks back. I just never associated the two because I didn’t expect my cell phone software to be installing video codecs (overwriting the ones that were already installed), but I guess they do do some multimedia stuff. I just use it for my bluetooth synchronization.
Anyway, all the FunBox codec files are located under:
C:\Program Files\Samsung\Samsung PC Studio 3\
And I simply unregistered all of them:
regsvr32 /u FunAudioCodecFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunAviSplitter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunConvFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunDecFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunEncFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunEQFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunImgFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunMp3DecFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunMpgDecFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunMpgGrabFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunOggDecFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunSampleGrabberFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunSubFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunVideoAdjustFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunVideoCodecFilter.ax
regsvr32 /u FunVideoResizeFilter.ax
Things are back to normal now, and the little ffdshow icon shows up in my systray again. I still don’t understand why reinstalling ffdshow didn’t fix my codec settings. I even made sure the Xvid box was checked. Hopefully this post will help someone out there that’s experiencing a similar problem.
Thanks a lot.
I finally fixed it.. I would never thought the main reason could be Samsung Pc Suite.
Many thanks again.
u r a awesome, saved my day
Thanks for the fix! Exactly what I was experiencing — noticed ffdshow wasn’t taking over for video when I’d run .avi files in Winamp, even though it was working with other stuff (such as .mp4). I wonder if there is a priority list for decoders, since I checked divx/xvid in ffdshow settings as well without any effect…..
Mate, you are a genius! Thank you so much – this has been driving me mad for months! By the way when you say “unregister”, do you mean delete them? Sorry, I’m not good at this stuff!!!
Thanks again!
You can delete them, but I would recommend you unregister them first (using the commands I provided above).
Currently those codecs are registered for XviD playback and you might hit into errors if they’re still registered, but your video player can’t find the codec files.
After you unregister them, you can do whatever you want with those files, including deleting them. 🙂
Appreciate the swift reply…all unregistered and all problems solved! For me, playing back xvid was making my player and explorer crash, but this is no more…nice!
Thanks again!
Hello,
I still do not understand how did u guys unregistered them. :S
It would be very helpful if somebody could explain me.
Hi Siim,
You see the list of regsvr32 in the top? Just copy and paste them into a command prompt.
To open a command prompt, goto Start > Run > cmd > OK
10x it’s really heplful
U saved me lots of troubles 🙂
My HERO!
I thought I was the only one with Samsung PC Studio Since its such poor software. I would have never guessed it would interfere with codecs. Much Thanks!
THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the info. Camera Assistant Software on my Toshiba laptop was giving error something like “Access violation at address ********* in module ‘FunConvFilter.ax’…” and unregistering these files solved the problem. I don’t even have a Samsung phone, but I had installed Samsung PC Studio 3 for my friend!
thanks!!!!!!!!!!!! you are my hero.!!!
Many thanks! It seems to be the same issue that appeared in our video forums.
http://forum.gleitz.info/showthread.php?t=40424
I FUCKING LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! YOU SAVED ME !!!
Thanks. You are great.
The avi plays now. cheers.
you save me a lot of trouble mate. thanks
Thanks very much for posting this fix.
Saved me a whole load of troubles!
Thanks a great big lot!!!
I was suspicious of that shitty S@msung software, being the only thing installed before my movies went bad, but your solution is amazingly rapid and brilliant!
If you people don’t want to buzz around copying and pasting, just copy once the above text lines into a anything.bat file (create it in Notepad), then run it in the same way as described above, saves you the hassle…
I’m gonna write Samsung to let them know it is unacceptable for any decent user to have their files changed in such way without permission!
Massive props man, I have been googling this problem for hours with no luck, as soon as I uninstalled Samsung PC Studio that flickering stopped. Thanks so much for sharing this
Many Thanks!!